Chart of the Day: Passenger Car Sales Skid Further

Sales of new passenger cars sank in February as the world’s largest auto market declined for the eighth straight month.

Retail sales dropped 17.4% year-on-year to 1.2 million units last month, the government-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on Monday (link in Chinese).

Last year, total yearly passenger car sales fell 5.8% to 22.35 million units — the first annual decline in 20 years, according to the China Passenger Car Association, an industry group.

The disappointing performance comes as rising property costs and a greater outflow of labor from third- and fourth-tier cities — which make up 59% of China’s gross domestic product and 73% of its population — have taken a toll on overall consumption.